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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 11/05/2026

A new episode that'll grow hair on your back teeth! waywordradio.org/match-game

A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 27/04/2026

Catch my drift? waywordradio.org/catch-my-drift New episode: ID10T problem, abasicky and sisper shame, pronouncing antenna, Billy Blue Blazes, a letter-swapping brain teaser, word-peckers, miigwech, to slag someone, took off like a ruptured duck, and lots more.

An RV in the the summertime with a man standing outside it.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 24/04/2026

Thanks to you, we now have transcripts for every episode and segment of “A Way with Words” since 2007! conta.cc/4989Qcp Plus, exciting new pages for books and music.

Example of an episode transcript from the A Way with Words website.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 12/04/2026

How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some color definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Cross the liminal space and find that and lots more in a brand-new episode: waywordradio.org/buttons-on-ice-cre…

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 30/03/2026

Catch your "A Way with Words" co-hosts live on WGBH Boston's "Curiosity Desk" tomorrow, 3/30, 1–2 p.m. Eastern Time, answering listener language questions. Video stream on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9lxT-R1Lx8 or audio stream: wgbh-live.streamguys1.com/wgbh

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 22/03/2026

When will you listen to this new episode? When the crow turns white? When the heron turns black? When the loach lay eggs in the banyan trees? On St. Never's Day? Get ahead of the curve (not curb) and do it now: waywordradio.org/tip-of-the-iceberg

A white heron in front of a reflected wetlands.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 08/03/2026

Color me surprised — it's a new episode of "A Way with Words" with the meaning of happiness. waywordradio.org/color-me-surprised Obligatory other listening: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxu3pq319r0

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 23/02/2026

If they're eating you out of house and home, call on Chef Mike and his meals à la ding! waywordradio.org/turn-on-a-dime Tons of cool sayings and expressions in this brand-new episode!

A scattered stack of American dimes on a table.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 09/02/2026

Cracking foxy and solving word games on a strange planet — light up your heartspoon with our brand-new episode: waywordradio.org/sweet-science

Close-up of two pairs of boxing gloves, one blue and one red, resting on a wooden surface and angled toward each other against a dark background.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 26/01/2026

Hurry and scurry and flurry and worry until you're feeling poosly, or don't do that — instead listen to the new "A Way with Words" episode: waywordradio.org/use-your-noodle

A group of zebras standing together in a grassy field, showcasing their distinctive black and white striped patterns against a clear blue sky.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 18/01/2026

Welcome to new stations and listeners via WESA FM in Pittsburgh, KTRL FM at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, and Radio IQ in Roanoke and central and western Virginia! www.wesa.fm www.tarleton.edu/ktrl www.wvtf.org

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 17/01/2026

If you are a Canadian francophone, there's a survey on French swearing researchers are running! Si vous êtes un Canadien francophone, des chercheurs mènent un sondage sur les jurons en français! run.pavlovia.org/pavlovia/survey-20…

Logos de trois universités canadiennes : McMaster, Université de Moncton, et Université Laurentienne. Logos of McMaster University, Université de Moncton, and Laurentian University, each with their respective emblems and text.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 30/12/2025

We are stoked by sick rides with you! conta.cc/4pYNYGP

A surfer braves the waves at Imperial Beach, California.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 21/12/2025

You dropped your pocket! Your epidermis is showing! Your sock is untied! waywordradio.org/safe-as-hous... You'll go gunnybags over this new episode — it's gooder ’n snuff ’n’ not near as dusty.

A handsome young man plays a guitar sometime in the 1950s or 1960s.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 15/12/2025

You dont have grob on some back-alley website nor go around the Wrekin nor trek out where God lost his galoshes — here is the new episode of "A Way with Words": waywordradio.org/potatoes-and...

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 11/12/2025

"Down bucket!" "Up for air!" It's another online-only bonus minicast from "A Way with Words": waywordradio.org/minicast-bon...

Image of Marblehead MA lighthouse by rabesphoto used under a Creative Commons license. https://www.flickr.com/photos/94325819@N00/54249466662

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 11/12/2025

Mia says donate! She's part of the "A Way with Words" family, living with our producer, Stefanie Levine. Mia says a gift worth a half-dozen long johns or eclairs would help keep new episodes coming in 2026. waywordradio.org/donate PS: Mia's health is 100% now!

Click the donut to donate to A Way with Words! https://waywordradio.org/donate

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 08/12/2025

Thanks to new "A Way with Words" sponsor Ellipsus! ellipsus.app/WORDS Ellipsus makes it easy for anyone to write together. Focus on creativity, collaboration, and community. Proudly pro-human. (No AI, ever.) And it's free for everyone!

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 04/12/2025

Bonus minicast! How place names change as they pass through languages, with "Picketwire" as our key example. waywordradio.org/minicast-bonus-pic…

Picketwire Canyon south of La Junta, Colorado. Landscapes, river, and mud.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 30/11/2025

If you're feeling Weltschmerz or you have the botts, the only solution is to listen to the latest new episode! waywordradio.org/drop-in-the-bucket We know it's only one hair from nine oxen but add oil! Maybe it won't turn off cold this week!

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 17/11/2025

Whippoorwills, bob whites, and chickadees. How do we decide the names of birds and what to call their calls? waywordradio.org/no-bones And lots more in the latest new episode.

A goat head peers through a gap in a fence.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 15/09/2025

Wuzzle, fuzzle, gnurr, oosse, squatcho and more in the latest new episode! waywordradio.org/cat-bristle

Nighttime photo of a curving road under a bright full moon, with long red and yellow light trails from a passing vehicle.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 01/09/2025

New emoji, including "face with bags under its eyes," plus the bug that gives us crimson color: waywordradio.org/good-egg-bad-apple And tons more in this latest new episode!

Rows of wooden barrels lying on their sides.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 24/08/2025

We had a blast at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival yesterday at the University of San Diego! Thanks to everyone who came out to hear and see us, and to the organizers for such a fulfilling event.

Martha Barnette of A Way with Words signs copies of her new book at the Warwick's enclosure.

Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette of A Way with Words speak on the main stage at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival at the University of San Diego.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 15/08/2025

Hi! Martha and Grant will speak at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival presented by the University of San Diego, Saturday, August 23, University of San Diego campus. Come join the Wayword word nerds and book nerds and RSVP at kpbs.org/sdbookfestival @UofSanDiego #KPBSBookFestival

KPBS San Diego Book Festival presented by the University of San Diego, Saturday, August 23, 2025, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., University of San Diego campus, with book icons in the background.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 04/08/2025

The thousand-year-old love poem — "delight in you is breath together with life" — and more in the latest new episode. waywordradio.org/mox-nix

A great egret stands in shallow water near the edge of a marsh, surrounded by patches of green grass, dry reeds, and muddy terrain. In the background, numerous waterfowl dot the surface of the wetland under a soft, overcast sky. Bare trees line the horizon, reflecting a winter landscape.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 30/06/2025

One kind of visiting fireman paints the town red rather than douses it — that and more in our latest new episode. waywordradio.org/eat-my-hat

A purple knitted cap made to look like it is topped with spaghetti, red sauce, and meatballs.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 16/06/2025

In mud eels are / In clay none are / In pine tar is / In oak none is. New episode is: waywordradio.org/straight-and-narrow

A white baseball rests on a rough, concrete surface with embedded pebbles, next to green-painted wooden beams and some tall grass.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 02/06/2025

This one's for the pilkunviilaajat, the comma-polishers. The saltigrade tardigrades. The mothers, the madres, the mères. The other shoe has dropped: waywordradio.org/the-other-shoe

A close-up of the laces of a leather boot.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 29/05/2025

With forty-eleven social media outfits vying for your time and mental space, there's always home to come back to: we've relaunched the A Way with Words community forum. Come and get some sugar: waywordradio.org/community

ALT tag:
Welcome sign featuring the word ‘Welcome’ in large white letters surrounded by translations in multiple languages on a dark background.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 19/05/2025

Been out sworping lately? waywordradio.org/swarping-sworping Or run the sweeper (a.k.a. the vacuum)? waywordradio.org/sweeping-with-a-va… Well, a new episode has hove into view: waywordradio.org/bean-counting

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 13/05/2025

Eh? What did they say? Let's find out — please help fund audio transcriptions for the entire "A Way with Words" episode back catalog! waywordradio.org/transcripts Thank you!

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 05/05/2025

Starting tomorrow, "A Way with Words" is on the air in Louisville, Kentucky! www.lpm.org/news/2025-05-05/new-pro… Tuesday nights at 8 on 89.3 WFPL, Louisville Public Media.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 05/05/2025

First and last words, breard and whicken, giving someone down the road, plurale tantem, more on Murphy's law, starnated fool, a pig Latin word game, a sea painter, and tons more in this brand new episode! waywordradio.org/honor-bright

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 28/04/2025

Good stuff! See the most popular episodes and segments of the radio show and podcast during the last 24 hours: waywordradio.org/popular-episodes-a…

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 19/04/2025

Fizzy relief headed your way from "A Way with Words": waywordradio.org/fizzy-relief-heade…

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 08/04/2025

The Sam Spade Case: how writer Dashiell Hammett took on Hollywood and shaped modern copyright law www.neh.gov/article/how-dashiell-ha…

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 04/04/2025

Do Californians have an accent? A UCLA professor is mapping it out. www.latimes.com/california/newslett… If you're in SoCal, be a part of the language study! www.norma-mendoza-denton.com/la-spe…

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 31/03/2025

About those North Carolina accents and dialects in "The White Lotus"... languageandlife.org/the-white-lo...

Actor Parker Posey, wearing a striped blue-and-white sundress and a wide-brimmed hat, holds hands with actor Sam Nivola, seated beside her at a dining table, suggesting a tender or comforting moment in the television show "The White Lotus."

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 24/02/2025

In the latest new episode, so many names for cardboard tubes and the sounds they make! waywordradio.org/smack-dab/ And lots more — listen right smack now!

A beam of light cuts through swirling smoke in a dark environment.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 20/01/2025

Put on your bib and tucker and listen to this new episode! waywordradio.org/potato-wagon/ Ways to describe thunder, short town names, woodshedding, ratcatcher, humming = stinking, a buzzling word game and lots more until the wheels come off!

Multiple lightning bolts striking across a dark night sky, illuminating a cityscape below with vivid, branching patterns of light.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 23/12/2024

Can we be your cause célèbre? myemail.constantcontact.com/Your-cause-c...

Text reading ‘Can We Be Your Cause Célèbre?’ overlaid on an image of a tall tree against a blue sky with clouds.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 23/12/2024

Your mother wears Army boots in our new episode: waywordradio.org/honkus-bonkus/ Also: book recs, Methuselah, barn find, scrumbunctious, got melon, Old Edderd sayings, honkus bonkus of the konkus, a clever word game, and tons more. It ain't our first rodeo!

A red barn with white trim surrounded by a fence and cornfields, set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and trees.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 06/12/2024

Tiny Martha and Grant — shown here excited by the questions they are deluged with! — invite you to their FREE "Ask Us Anything" live video event December 12th: waywordradio.org/ask-us-anyth... Fun! Adventure! Nerdsomenessity!

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 01/12/2024

Join us for a *free* live "A Way with Words" "Ask Us Anything" video event! December 12, 4:30 p.m. PST. Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett of the popular public radio show/podcast will lead a linguistic Q&A romp. You must register to get the video link! waywordradio.org/ask-us-anyth....

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 25/11/2024

Frogs! In! Space! waywordradio.org/space-frogs/ Plus: virtuous names, fight the good fight, meteoric rise, one side or a leg off, polypoton, er er word quiz, main strength, sixth as "sikth", Irish omadhuan, tall cotton, and lots more.

The image shows a starry night sky above a silhouette of rugged hills or cliffs. The sky is filled with numerous bright stars, and a faint trail, possibly from a meteor, streaks diagonally across the scene. The Milky Way is visible as a faint, cloudy band on the right side, adding to the celestial detail. The foreground features dark, shadowy rock formations, and there is a slight glow near the horizon, likely light pollution or a sunset glow.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 30/09/2024

Listen to all the things! New episode: waywordradio.org/midnight-oil/ Burning the midnight oil, curfew, shooing, sirens, two-word tongue twister, the cold wind "the hawk," hot/cold as brinjer, sigma male, a fun word game, and lots more.

A row of lit oil lamps with glowing flames. The focus is on the nearest lamps, with a blurred background enhancing the warm glow.

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A Way with Words @waywordradio.org · 16/09/2024

It's easy as pie to listen to this brand-new episode! waywordradio.org/easy-as-pie/ Hotter simile, nunatak, dawdle, the king of the fence, chi-chi-chi Chaneski's latest quiz, icing vs. frosting, gherming in Nashville, behead vs. decapitate, and a whole lot more!

A variety of homemade baked goods on a table, including round pies with meringue toppings, a layered cake, and chocolate bars. A person is cutting a pie. Arrangement suggests an outdoor event or gathering focused on sharing food.

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